I had a couple of lemon in the fridge so I wanted to used them in a cake. I had a recipe that I wanted to try for some time so this was my chance.
Ingredients:
250g ground almonds
100g fine polenta / cornmeal
50g coarse polenta
1 teaspoon baking powder
250g (good) butter + a bit for greasing
zest and juice of 3 (good) lemons (medium size)
4 free range / organic medium eggs
Process
Preheat oven at 180C. Grease a 20cm round cake tin
Mix the almonds, both kinds of polenta and the baking powder together in a bowl and put aside.
Put the butter, lemon zest and sugar into another bowl and cream together. I used a wooden spoon. Get ready to sweat a bit. Once everything is mixed, start adding an egg at each time, mix well, and add another.
Add the initial bow with the polenta and almond to the mixture. Mix well until everything is combined. Add the lemon juice. Mix well.
Poor everything on the tin and smooth the top. Bake for 50-55 minutes. Check the top is brown.
It is a quick, moist and easy cake. And it is tasty!
This blog is mainly for “Today I learned…” (TIL). And that can be anything…. so don’t get surprised. It could be worse ™
“Ensaladilla Rusa” (Russian Salad) is a typical Spanish dish. I remember we had it nearly every week in summer time. With the hot weather, having something fresh, it was a bless. Like “gazpacho” 🙂
But I have never tried it on my own until last weekend. I love cooking (I dont consider myself a good cook though), it is relaxing and I regard it as a very important part of my upbringing and culture. I want to keep it and enjoy it! It has to be simple, humble, tasty, etc. Dont like fancy or over the top things.
So back to the track… You can find many recipes in google/youtube, it is like “Tortilla Española”, each home has its own. This is the one I tried and I liked the result:
Ingredients for the salad
1kg potatoes
500g of frozen vegetables mix (peas, carrots, corn, beans)
1 can of tuna (or 2)
4 boiled eggs (salt and vinegar in the water so the shell doesn’t break)
olives
grilled pepper
Ingredient for the mayonesse
1 egg
salt
juice of 1/2 lemon (you will have to taste and maybe you dont need to use all of it)
Boil the potatoes with enough water and salt (skin included). Be sure the potatoes are similar size so the go tender around the same time. Cut them if needed. They are ready when you can cross a knife through the potato without effort. This is not mash potatoes though 🙂 Let them cool down
I put the frozen salad in boiling water for 1-2 minutes so they became eatable again.
Boil the eggs with enough water (salt and vinegar). Around 10 minutes. Let cool down a bit under a bit of cold water. Then remove the shell (it shouldn’t be too difficult) and cut them in small cubes.
Peel the potatoes with your hand and cut them in little cubes (like the eggs)
In a glass try, mix the potatoes, vegetables, eggs and tuna. Let them cool in the fridge.
Once you get your mayonnaise, add it to the mix.
Optionally you can add some olives and decorate the top of the salad with slices of grilled peppers
Cool a bit in the fridge and ready to eat!
Mayonnaise Process:
Put in your hand mixer glass, the egg, salt, some lemon juice and a bit of oil to cover the mixer head.
Start mixing and it will become white. Then start adding the rest of oil bit a bit.
The mix shouldn’t be liquid neither solid. Something like heavier egg whites.
Taste it, very important. Add more salt? More lemon? Mine had a strong lemony flavour but remember you will add it to the salad.
